Research And Development On Wind Turbine Blade Icing Detection System

Wind turbine blade icing affects the aerodynamic performance of a wind machine andoperational safety. For example, blade icing will change the external shape andaerodynamic performance of the blades, increasing the blade resistance, reducing upwardforce, affecting stability, and, ultimately, results in reduced efficiency of wind energyconversion and causes serious damage to the blades. Consequently, wind turbine bladeicing has become an urgent issue need to be addressed to ensure the safe operation of thewind turbine.In this thesis, the wind turbine blade icing detection system is researched anddeveloped. To begin with, the theories of rapid icing computation, optical fiber icingsensors and weak signal detection are introduced. Then, basing on the above theories, thedetector (including optical fiber sensors), the signal processing circuit, the upper computersoftware and the communication protocol are designed in detail. The detector (includingoptical fiber sensors) and the signal processing circuit realize the conversion from theweak icing status changes on the sensors to the notable voltage signals on the samplingmodules. The serial communication module, data graphical display module and datastorage module are designed in the upper computer software for processing icing voltagesignals transmitted from the hardware system. The friendly user interface of uppercomputer software, which including real-time icing alarm and data storage, isimplemented. Finally, in the laboratory experiment platform, the system’s icing calibrationand rain interference experiments are completed.The believable result of above experiments proves that the system is able to detectthe wind turbine blade icing and accomplish real-time icing alarm basically.